LEAD-INDUCED ELEVATION OF BLOOD-PRESSURE .2. NORMOTENSIVE RATS

Forty-two male rats of the Wistar-Kyoto strain, the original normotens ive strain of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SM), were fed with p elleted food containing lead at a dose level of 0, 3, 30, or 300 mu g/ g (ppm) over a period of 16 weeks. The age-related increase in blood p ressure was somewhat suppressed in the 300 ppm. It was not accelerated by lead exposure at lower dose levels. All the previous and present d ata indicate that the age-related increase in blood pressure is accele rated by lead exposure for 18 weeks at a lower dose level only in rats with hypertensive heredity. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.